


Legacy (Pilot)

by Scotie_chan



Series: Legacy [1]
Category: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-07-29 07:13:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16259252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scotie_chan/pseuds/Scotie_chan
Summary: For some reason, after death, Jekyll and Hyde end up resurrected in the modern day.This is just a pilot of sorts, the set up to the story, I'll write more when my other adaption is finished.





	1. After Life

As Mister Hyde slid the cold broken blade of Dr. Jekyll’s sword stick across their throat his only thought was, ‘ _ I wonder what comes next. _ ’

The answer, that the good doctor found the second the little heart of Mr. Hyde stopped beating, was a corridor, a long white corridor that stretched out left and right in all directions, with only one set of doors inside, right across the hall from him.

“What the fuck?” an ugly voice spoke.

Jekyll looked to the left and down, and found sitting next to him was a small, red haired man, shackled to him and the worst and ankle.

“Hyde?” Jekyll asked.

Hyde looked up.

He went wide eyed.

“Holy shit!” he said.

Jekyll raised his unshackled hand in a small wave.

The sound of footsteps rang out then, and the doctor and his little brother looked straight ahead to the doors across from them.

There was a sound of metal sliding, then one of the doors slowly creaked open to reveal a small, blonde, child in a little white gown. A golden ring floated above its head, and a set of white pings extruded from its back.

“I believe I’m in the wrong place.” Hyde said upon seeing the child.

The child sighed and smiled.

“That’s promising.” it said.

Jekyll glanced off to the side, then stood.

“I’m afraid I’m a tad confused,” he said, “and admittedly a tad afraid…”

“That’s the appropriate reaction.” the little child said, stepping out into the hall, “Let me explain, you’re in purgatory.”

Jekyll frowned.

“I don’t entirely know what that is,” he said, “I’m not catholic.”

“Neither is reality, it’s just a word you know, similar enough to what’s going on to be used for the sake of understanding. Lies to children.”

“What’s this about lying to children?” Hyde asked.

The child shook its head.

“Right country, wrong era.” it said, “Now then, what’s about to happen is you’re about to step through these doors…”

The child pointed behind itself.

“…into a room where lies, half truths, and phrases than could mean two different things are impossible.” it continued, “You’re going to be asked three questions, and you’re going to answer them. Your answers will determine your soul’s fate.”

Jekyll and Hyde wrinkled their brows.

“That sounds stupid.” Hyde said.

“It sounds too simple.” Jekyll said after, “I have questions,, for starters what sort of questions are we going to be asked? Will we answer individually or together? Will Hyde and Have to go to the same place? Are we one soul or-”

The sound of a bell rang out from behind the child.

“That’s your cue.” it said, whilst bowing its head and stepping side, “May God be on your side.”

Jekyll and Hyde glanced to each other.

Hyde shrugged, then stood.

“I guess let’s get this over with him.” he said, before walking across the hall.

Jekyll went with him, across the hall, pass the winged child and through the door, and into bright, white light.

Hyde and Jekyll squinted and looked around.

They saw nothing.

Behind them the door shut.

The duo looked back to it, and saw nothing but bright, white light.

“Do you know that you’ve done wrong?” a voice called out to him from somewhere in the light.

It sounded both male and female, both young and old, and coming from all directions.

Jekyll and Hyde looked around for it, but found nothing, so the two just looked to each other.

“Um,” Hyde spoke first, “I fucked myself senseless, out of marriage, with prostitutes, sometimes consensually sometimes not, smoked so much opium my entire life may or may not have been one long pipe dream, committed more petty crimes than I care to admit, then murdered a man to piss this man off, and accidently, indirectly, causes the deaths of two others.”

“I played God.” Jekyll said, “I tampered with my soul with ill, selfish intentions, and when my little game started hurting people I didn’t stop until my fun did. And even then I was bitter about it ending…”

He glanced down.

The voice called out again, asking this time, “Do you understand why it was wrong?”

“People got hurt.” Hyde said, “Diseases were spread, people died, that sort of thing, um, the opium thing I don’t get. Hurt me sure, but-”

“Hyde, shut up.” Jekyll interrupted, “You’ll get us sent to Hell.”

Hyde shut his mouth, and glared up at the man.

Jekyll kept looking down.

“Edward killed one person personally and two others indirectly,” he said after a sigh, “three people’s lives were cut short because I wanted to have sex.”

Hyde growled at this answer.

“Bitch.” he muttered.

“Hyde.” Jekyll said sternly, “Let me do the talking.”

Hyde rolled his eyes, then turned away from him.

“Do you regret what you did?” the voice asked next.

“Of course I bloody do.” Jekyll answered, whilst folding his arms over his chest, unconcerned for the small hairy hand that was brought up tos his chest by the shackle as he did this, “Look where it got me. Look where it got Carew, and Hastie, and Michael! Dead as door nails!”

Jekyll huffed.

Then he frowned.

Jekyll lowered his arms and looked up.

“Are they…are they alright?” he asked.

He received no answer.

Jekyll looked down. 

“I don’t have the right to ask that, do I?” he asked.

The silence continued.

‘ _ I’ve pissed him off. _ ’ he thought.

Jekyll sighed.

“I shouldn’t have used such a tone with you.” he said, “I’m s-”

The man’s mouth shut.

He frowned.

“I’m sor-” he tried again, to the same result.

He wrinkled his brow.

“Oh.” he said softly.

Hyde let out a suddenly, “Ha!”

Jekyll looked to him with a cold glare.

Hyde wasn’t looking back a thim. 

The man was just staring off into the distance, eyes wide, his unshackled hand reached up into his red locks.

“I don’t know.” he said, “I don’t know if what I feel is my own guilt, or Henry’s!”

Jekyll lost his glare stood up straighter.

“What?” he asked.

Hyde lowered his hand, and looked up to him.

“That pit in our stomach.” he said, “Was that mine, yours, or both of ours?”

Jekyll blinked.

Then scowled.

“Clearly just mine, you idiot!” he said, “I made you unable to feel any guilt of your own!”

Hyde gave a small laugh, then looked away.

“Oh.” he said.

Jekyll stared down at him.

Hyde paid him no mind.

Jekyll scoffed, then looked away.

“Well?” he asked the light, holding out his free hand as he did so, “What's the verdict?” 

Another bell rang out suddenly.

That was the last thing he saw of the light.

Suddenly he found himself in a room, a room with light green painted walls, and white tiled floors covered in scuff marks.

There was a desk in this room, and at the desk sat a young woman in a dark blue uinform, holding something on a cord up to the side of her head.

Jekyll and this woman made eye contact.

Jekyll smiled awkwardly, then game a small bow.

The woman sighed.

“I’m going to have to call you back, Lary.” she said into the thing held to her face.

She then reached out across her desk, to a box the cord of the thing was connected to, then pressed a series of buttons.

Jekyll glanced off, then looked around the room.

There were two flags standing in the corner, one donned red and white stripes, and a blue square dotted with stars, and the other was dark blue with a golden circle in the center that contained an image of ship. Up above them squares of buzzing white light illuminated the room. On the wall behind the woman was a clock that read  **_12:04,_ ** and beside it, cork board, a simple calendar pinned to it that was open to a page reading  **_August, 2018._ **

‘ _ Twenty-Eighteen? _ ’ Hyde said from the back of Jekyll’s mind.

Jekyll shrugged.

“Arthur?” the woman at the desk suddenly said into the thing held to the side of her face, “It’s Sal again, got another weird one for ya…what I’m guessing is a time traveler just appeared here in the station…yeah I know right? Convenient…eh he looks more confused than anything…OK, see you shortly.”

The woman lowered the thing she was holding and placed it on the box it was connected to.

She then stood, and stepped around the desk and towards Jekyll.

“What’s your name, sweetheart?” she asked.

Jekyll bowed to her.

“Dr. Henry Jekyll.” he said.

The woman stopped. 

“I called the wrong guy for this,” she said, “one second.”

She then proceeded to turn around, and walk back to her desk.

Jekyll blinked.

“Wrong guy?” he whispered.

‘ _ I have never been more confused than I am right now. _ ’ Hyde chimed in.

Jekyll nodded in agreement.


	2. Revealations

George was used to waking up to phone calls at three in the morning, but usually they were from his daughter, calling to announce she was too drunk to drive and needed a ride home, not a police officer announcing a man claiming to be a certain long dead doctor appeared out of thin air before her vary eyes.

He trusted Sal, but not the man she spoke of.

He went down to the station with a look of suspicion already etched into his aging features.

When Sal opened the door to the interrogation room he got lay eyes on this man. The fellow was a little on the short and scrawny side, and seemingly up there in years, though the state of his beard and a certain tiredness in his pale green eyes suggested most of the age in his face came from stress rather than his actual age. His hair was brown and graying, curly, and long, and he wore an old timey suit with a top hat and wire frame glasses, and he looked almost exactly like the portrait in George’s office.

The stranger stood when the door opened, and made eye contact with George.

George didn’t know what to say. Thought had escaped him.

“Want me to come in with you?” Sal asked.

George looked to her.

Something about her serious tone knocked some sense into George, and he thought, ‘ _This could be one of Arthur's tricks._ ’

“Stay nearby.” George told her, before stepping into the room.

Sal gave a nod, then shut the door.

And then George was alone, face to face with a man who may or may not have been a certain long dead doctor.

“Evening.” he said.

 “Good evening.” Jekyll responded, “I assure you I am not insane…well I can’t assure you that, but I can assure you my name is Dr. Henry Jekyll and I am in fact from the eighteen-nineties.”

George raised an eyebrow at that, then stepped around the table and took a seat across from Jekyll.

“Now a police officer just told me you appeared out of thin air before her very eyes,” he said, while leaning back in his chair, “so I believe something strange is going on, but I’m having a hard time believing you are who you say you are. Do you have any proof you’re the infamous Dr. Jekyll?”

Jekyll frowned.

‘ _Infamous._ ’ he thought sadly.

“Afraid not.” he said.

“No?” George asked, “Can you turn into Mr. Hyde?”

Jekyll blinked.

“What is your name, sir?” he asked.

“George.” George answered, “You don’t need to know my last name.”

Jekyll gave a nod.

“Well, George,” he said, “I can let  Mr. Hyde out, but I won’t be able to turn back without my elixir, so you’ll be stuck with a remorseless murderer if I were to let him out…and no I can't make my elixir, I don’t know the final ingredient, it only worked because of some impurity in this salt I was using…”

Jekyll sighed, then reached up a hand into his hair.

George scoffed.

“Is that what this is?” he asked as if he hadn’t already thought of it, “You’re here to get your hands on the Hyde serum?”

Jekyll frowned.

‘ _What is he implying with that?_ ’ Hyde asked.

“Pardon?” Jekyll asked.

“Did Arthur send you?” George asked, “How much is he paying you?”

“…I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

George rolled his eyes, then stood up.

“Of course you don’t.” he said.

He turned and started for the door.

“Keep up this story,” he said, “you’ll end up in an asylum, end it and I’ll have you thrown in prison for attempted theft.”

Jekyll stood up.

“Wait!” he said, “Fine! I’ll show you!”

George stopped, and looked back.

“Will you now?” he asked.

Jekyll nodded.

“Yes,” he said, “um, I need to feel something negative, and strong, severe pain, fear for my life, something like that.”

George raised an eyebrow at this.

“Alright.” he said.

He turned and stepped over to Jekyll.

“Take your glasses off.” he said, “Wouldn’t want to blind you.”

Jekyll grimaced, then reached up and took off his glasses, then set them down on the table.

The second they were touching the table’s surface was the second George introduced his first to Jekyll’s nose.

Jekyll fell back with wide eyes.

He felt the pain all the way back through his snout to his brain, a sharp dullness growing sharper by the second.

It started to spread, down his face, down his neck, through his torso.

He let out a scream.

George went wide eyed, and stumbled back.

The man on the floor before him shit his eyes and curled up into a ball as he twitched in pain. His skin was growing dark, not browning but rather blackening, and his hair began to fall out, only to be replaced by red, straighter locks.

George raised a hand to his mouth, and stepped back.

“Oh my God,” he whispered, “you were telling the truth!”

The sobbing man let out a laugh in a voice that wasn’t his own.

The blackness started fade from his skin, to reveal features that didn’t belong to the man who had fallen. He opened his eyes, and looked George in the eye, then slowly rose to his feet.

“Evening,” he said, “call me Eddie. Believe the good doctor now?”

“Edward Hyde…” George whispered as he lowered his hand.

He scowled and stood up straight.

Hyde raised an eyebrow.

“What?” he asked, leaning over to pick up Jekyll’s hat as he did so, “Hate me already?”

“I don’t know how to feel.” George said, “On one hand you’ve indirectly caused my family worlds of suffering, but on the other hand they wouldn’t be here without you.”

Hyde lost his expression.

“What?” he asked.

George sighed, and began to droop.

“My name is Dr. George Justin Utterson,” he said, “I am your three greats grandson.”

Hyde’s blood ran cold.

“Son?” he whispered, “Utterson?!”

“Utterson heard about a two in one deal locked up in an insane asylum ten years after your death.” George said, “A Robert and Zachary Miller. Found their mother, asked her some questions, concluded the boys were what was left of you two. Decided to take them in, man called it an act repentance from what I understand.”

Hyde didn’t respond to that.

‘ _Oh, Gabriel…_ ’ Jekyll said with a sad laugh.

Hyde smiled just as sadly.

“I have so many questions.” he said.

“Would you mind if I answer them in the morning?” George asked, “The daylight morning. You can come stay with me for the night.”

Hyde nodded.

“Right…” he said, “Thank you.”

He let out a little laugh, then reached up a hand to rub his forehead.

“God I’m tired.” he said.

George picked up Jekyll’s glasses and handed them to Hyde, who put them in a jacket pocket, then put a hand on the small man’s shoulder, then turned and lead him over to the door, which he opened and stepped through.

Sal stood out in the hall on the other side.

She looked at Hyde confused.

“Don’t ask.” George said, “This didn’t happen.”

Sal gave a nod, then looked away,

“Have a good night, George.” she said.

“You too, Sal.” George said, before leading Hyde down the hall to the exit.

Hyde followed with his head held down.

‘ _A son?_ ’ he was thinking, ‘ _No, sons, oh God…_ ’

“Jekyll you’re making me feel guilty stop it.” he said.

‘ _Guilty?_ ’ Jekyll asked.

“Yes, stop it.”

Jekyll didn’t respond to that.

George kept an eye on Hyde during the conversation that to him appeared one sided.

“Can Dr. Jekyll hear me?” he asked.

“He can.” Hyde answered.

“Alright.” George said, “We’ll be able to bring you back out, you aren’t stuck as Hyde.”

Hyde frowned.

“How?” he asked.

“Robert made it his life goal to find the impurity that made your transformation happen.” George answered, “He found it just before his death.”

Hyde stopped.

George did as well, and turned to him.

“It was soda ash.” he said, “Sodium carbonate.”

Hyde blinked.

“The stuff used to get wine stains out?” he asked.

“I believe so.” he said.

Hyde didn’t respond to that.

He just stood there, quietly staring at George, with no expression.

“Mr. Hyde?” George asked.

Hyde suddenly let out a loud, ugly, sob. Tears started dripping town his cheeks.

George grimace.

“You’re tired.” he said, “Me, too. Lets go.”

He turned around, then walked to the exit.

Hyde reached up to wipe away his tears on Jekyll’s too big sleeve, then followed George out.

On the other side of the doors he found himself staring at a lot full of big things he didn’t understand.

“What are those?” Hyde asked softly, pointing at one of the things.

George stopped and blinked.

“Cars.” he said, “Um, automobiles, horseless carriages.”

Hyde raised an eyebrow at that.

“Are they common place?” he asked.

“One of the things you don’t need,” George answered, “but have to have.”

George walked up to his own car parked at the curb, a silver two seater Cadillac from twenty-ten, then took out his keys and pressed the button on the remote to unlock the car.

Hyde just stood in the doorway, staring at him.

George opened the driver’s seat car door, then paused to look at him.

“It’s safe.” he said.

Hyde gave a little nod, then went around to the passenger door, then grabbed the handle and pulled it up.

It clicked.

He pulled it back.

The door came open.

Hyde peered inside at all the lights and buttons and things.

George got in, and pulled the door shut. He stuck his keys in and started the car.

Hyde stepped back when the radio burst to life, the sound of some twangy instrument hitting his ears.

George reached out to the radio and pressed the button to turn the radio down.

“Hard rock.” he said, “You’ll like it or you’ll have nothing to do with me.”

Hyde glanced off to the side, then slowly climbed into the car, put Jekyll’s hat in his lap, and pulled the door shut.

George bucked his seat belt.

Hyde copied him.

“What’s this thing?” he asked.

“Seat belt.” George said, “Keeps you safe in case someone who doesn’t know how to drive gets on the street with you.”

Hyde nodded slowly.

George put the car into gear, then turned around in his heat and started to back out.

Hyde shut his eyes and tight as he could when the vehicle started to move.

‘ _Hyde?_ ’ Jekyll asked.

“What?” Hyde answered.

‘ _Are you afraid?_ ’

Hyde scoffed

“No!” he said as he gripped the sides of his seat.

Jekyll didn’t respond to that.

“Shut up!” Hyde whined.

‘ _I didn’t say anything_.’ Jekyll said.

“You thought it!”

As this conversation occurred, George looked over to the little man, and just stared at him.

“I am not a ninny!” Hyde whined.

George blinked then looked back straight ahead and started driving.


	3. Two In One

The small bedroom George let Hyde into was best described as cold. Gray walls, white carpet and ceiling, white bed sheets, gray bed, dresser and bedside tables with gray lamps atop them, and white curtains dangling along either side of two floor to ceiling windows that looked out onto a quite street lined by gray lamp posts that emitted white glows.

“This is your guest bedroom?” Hyde asked as he stepped through the door.

“Yes.” George said simply.

“You don’t have many people staying over, do you?”

George shook his head.

“I’ll gone in the morning.” he said, “I’ll come back and get you during my lunch hour. Stay out of trouble or I will break every bone in your body except your neck. Goodnight.”

With that he shut the door.

“Strong family resemblance.” Hyde said.

He turned around, then started to take off Jekyll’s jack.

‘ _ Please close the curtains before you strip. _ ’ Jekyll’s voice rang out from the back of his mind.

Hyde sighed, then dropped Jekyll’s jacket, stepped over to the first floor to ceiling window, then grabbed those dark gray curtains and pulled them shut.

“I think your modesty is out of place.” he said, before going to close the other curtains, “Did you see what that man was wearing? He upper arms were bared!”

‘ _ I see your point. _ ’ Jekyll said, ‘ _ I’m thinking on it. _ ’

Hyde started to unbutton Jekyll’s vest then. When it was done he pulled it off and dropped it to the floor, then pulled down Jekyll’s suspenders and slipped out of his trousers.

‘ _ What do you think we’re supposed to do here? _ ’ Jekyll asked suddenly.

“Hm?” Hyde asked.

‘ _ If we were given a second chance, what are we supposed to do differently? _ ’

“Oh.” 

Hyde shrugged, and slipped off Jekyll’s shirt.

“Not kill anyone, I suppose.” he said, “And if that God or whoever thinks I’m giving up sex they are sadly mistaken I am more than glad to rot in hell for eternity.”

He went to climb into the bed.

He paused at the foot on it.

“When I die again.” he added.

Silence. 

Hyde shook his head, then climbed up not the bed, crawled up to the pillows, then lifted up the covers and climbed under them.

He looked over to the gray lamp on the table beside the bed.

There was a button on the base of it. He pressed it and the light turned off.

“Goodnight, Henry.” he said, before laying down.

‘ _ Goodnight, Hyde. _ ’ Jekyll said back.

Hyde buried his head in the pillow, and shut his eyes.

When he awoke it was to the sound of music blasting from beyond the door.

It was very energetic music, which the tired Hyde despised with every single solitary fiber of his very being.

“What the fuck?” he grumbled as he opened his eyes.

He raised his head, and looked towards the door.

_ You shoulda' seen what I wore, _ a man sang out on the other side,  _ I had a cane and a party hat… _

‘ _ Hell’s sounding pretty pleasant right now. _ ’ Jekyll muttered.

Hyde nodded, then pushed off the covers and climbed out of bed.

He hastily dressed, then went to the door, grabbed the knob, and pulled it open.

The awful music grew louder.

Hyde marched down the hall, towards the stairs which the music rang out from the bottom of.

“Do you people not have bloody neighbors?!” Hyde screeched as he stomped down those stairs.

“Oh!” a girl’s voice cried out.

At the bottom of the stairs, in Utterson’s living room, Hyde found a red haired girl attempting to reach over the back of a red sofa to grab a small pink box off one off the cushions.

Hyde paused when he saw this girl. She wasn’t dressed well, she had on tight blue trousers, and tight pink shirt with a low neckline. 

Hyde was suddenly having something of a hard time.

“I forgot you were here!” the girl said as she grabbed her box, “I’m so sorry!”

She tapped at the box, and the music stopped.

Hyde sighed.

The girl looked over to him.

She opened her mouth to say something, and started to raise up a hand as if to wave, but she neither spoke nor waved, she simply stared at him.

Hyde raised an eyebrow, and folded his arm over his chest.

“Well?” he asked.

“Why are you a leprechaun?” the girl finally asked.

Hyde started to slouch.

“Who the fuck are you?” he asked.

The girl suddenly scowled.

“Don’t talk to my sister like that!” she said suddenly, in a slightly deeper voice.

Hyde lost his expression and blinked.

The girl slouched and sighed.

“Hannah,” she said in her previous voice, “this is not time for sexism.”

She scowled again, then scoffed.

“I think that’s something we ought to tell him, Jacklin!” she said in her deeper voice, before looking to Hyde, “Hey, guess what! Women can be doctors now!”

Hyde raised his eyebrows at that.

“Oh that’s a wonderful idea!” he said.

The girl lost her expression.

“You know,” Hyde said, “women tend to have trouble bringing themselves to talk to men about certain womanly health issues…”

He shrugged.

The girl just stared at him after that.

‘ _ What? _ ’ Jekyll asked.

Hyde glanced off to the side real quick.

“I mean,” he said, “fuck! Henry won’t get to treat hysteria anymore…”

The girl blinked.

“Anyway,” she said, “I’m Jacklin, the bitch is Hannah-oh fuck off!-my sister…”

Hyde slid his hands into Jekyll’s pockets.

“Your own personal Edward Hyde?” he asked.

The girls shook their head.

“We don’t call one a Jekyll and the other a Hyde.” Hannah said, “It’s not a good and evil thing, just two people in one.”

“Oh…” Hyde said.

Jacklin nodded.

Then silence.

The two just stood there, staring at each other.

‘ _ Apologize. _ ’ Jekyll said.

“I’m sorry.” Hyde said, “It’s Jekyll’s fault you’re this way, isn’t it?”

‘ _ I hate you. _ ’

Jacklin wrinkled her brow, and shook her head again.

“No, no,” she said, “don’t be. She can be a pain, but I love my sister-love you too, sissy-don’t call me that!”

Hyde raised an eyebrow at this, then smiled slightly. 

“Anyway,” Jacklin said, “you hungry? It’s about lunch time, you slept through breakfast time.”

At the thought of food Hyde’s stomach growled.

He placed a hand on his stomach.

“Very.” he said, “I don’t suppose jellied eels are on the menu? Comfort food.”

“Ew,” Hannah said, “no. Welcome to the modern day you’re trying pizza.” 

The girls turned and walked off into the next room.

Hyde followed them .

The room they stepped into was a kitchen of white cabinets and black appliances. Hannah and Jacklin stepped up to some sort of closet thing, grabbed a handle on one of its doors, then pulled it open and looked inside.

Hyde took a seat on a stool at an island counter and watched her.

Hannah or Jacklin reached into the closet thing, and took out a big flat box.

“It’s leftovers,” Jacklin said, “don’t have anything else, we’ve had a weird issue with groceries every since Mom… yeah.”

The girls put the box on the counter and opened it up.

They reached up to a cabinet, which she opened and reached into to take out a black square plate.

“Your mum?” Hyde asked, “Will I be meeting her?”

Jacklin and Hannah slowly put the plate down on the counter, then shook their head.

“No.” Hannah said, “She died six years ago.”

Hyde frowned.

“I’m sorry.” he said.

The girls shrugged.

They reached into the box, then took out a triangular, droopy, slice of some sort of bread thing topped with tomato sauce, cheese, and thing slices of pepperoni. They put it down on the plate, then got two other slices to join it, then picked up the plate and took it over to some sort of box sitting on the counter on the opposite side of the room.

They opened the box from the front, then stuck the plate in and closed it back up. They pressed some buttons on the box, which bepped, then the box lit up inside and started to hum.

“What is that?” Hyde asked.

“Microwave.” Jacklin said, “Heats food up quick. I don’t know how it works…”

The microwave stopped humming after a few seconds, and beeped.

Jacklin and Hannah opened it up, took the plate out, then shut the microwave and brought the plate over to him.

“You’re going to love this.” Jacklin said as she sat the plate down before him, “Most people do.”

“Silverware?” Hyde asked.

“It’s handheld food. You pick up it up at the crust and eat towards it.”

Hyde raised an eyebrow at that, then shrugged and picked up a slice.

It drooped in his hand.

“Very greasy,” he said, before bring it to his mouth and taking a bite out of it.

He started to chew it.

He raised his eyebrows, and started to chew faster, and when he swallowed he took another, bigger bite, and chewed that up quickly as well.

Jacklin laughed a little.

From the other room then came the sound of a door opening.

“Home!” George called out.

“Kitchen!” Hannah called back.

George shut the door, then made his way into the kitchen.

“Pizza?” he asked Hyde, “Like it?”

Hyde stuffed the rest of the slice n his mouth, and nodded as he chewed it.

George blinked.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” he said, “Finish eating and I’ll take you into bring Jekyll back out.”

Hyde gave a thumbs up as he chewed.

“You going to introduce them to the Sinnabun?” Jacklin asked.

George laughed.

“If I didn’t,” he said, “and the man found out on his own these two were here, there would be a bloodbath.”

Hyde frowned at that.

He wanted to ask questions, but with his mouth so full he could not, so he instead he just chewed in silence. 


	4. What Came After

The second George’s car stopped the passenger side door was open, and Hyde was falling to the ground.

George just stared at him quietly, then got out himself.

Hyde stood up and shut the car door, then looked up the the building they had parked outside of.

It was the tallest and shiniest building the little man had ever seen, at least fifty stories, blue glass covering the entire thing.

‘ _Oh goodness._ ’ Jekyll said in awe.

“This is where you work?” Hyde asked.

Utterson shut his side’s door and locked the car.

“It is.” he said, “Share it with a law firm, an insurance company, and a book publishing company.”

“And your company takes up which floors?” Hyde asked.

“Twelve through twenty. Don’t worry, there’s an elevator.”

George started for the entrance.

Hyde followed him in.

On the other side of the doors was a long, thin room leading back to an elevator. Off to the side a woman sat behind a large white desk.

Hyde smiled at the woman with half shut eyes.

The woman just stared at him.

Hyde rolled his eyes, then looked up to George.

“What exactly is your company?” he asked.

“Utterson Pharmaceuticals.” George answered, “A pharmaceutical company as the name suggests, mainly focuses on psychiatry and neurological matters. Started it myself when I was thirty.”

George lead Hyde up the elevator, and pressed the up button.

“Started it with my best friend, Dr. Landon Roberts,” he went on, “who I will introduce you to here shortly. I apologize in advance, but I have no doubt in my mind he will cover me in paper cuts and drown me in a tub of lemon juice if I don’t and he finds out you’re here on his own. That’s if I’m lucky, mind you.”

Hyde grimaced at that.

The elevator dinged, then the doors opened.

George stepped in.

Hyde poked his head in, then brought the rest of his body in with him.

George pressed the button for the twentieth floor.

The doors slid shut behind Hyde.

Hyde turned around and stood beside George.

‘ _Ask him if he’s a scientist._ ’ Jekyll said then.

“Are you a scientist too?” Hyde asked.

“I was going to be,” George said, “but I changed my major to business.”

Hyde nodded.

He looked up to the numbers above the door.

Third floor, fourth floor, fifth floor…

The elevator stopped on the sixth, and a young man with his eyes glued to a phone in his hand got in.

“What floor?” George asked.

“Ten please.” the man said.

George pressed the button for the tenth floor.

Hyde looked up to the man.

The man noticed, and looked down back at the little man.

Hyde grinned.

The man grimaced, then stepped back.

George raised an eyebrow.

He shook his head, then looked up to the numbers.

Eighth floor, ninth floor, tenth.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened.

The man rushed out, an eye kept on Hyde.

The elevator doors shut again, and the little box started moving up again.

“Air of deformity,” George said, “that’s what Enfield and Utterson and Stevenson called it.”

Hyde smirked.

“I’m so evil my mere image strikes fears in the hearts of the most sane and bravest of men.” he said.

“You don’t seem very evil.” George noted.

Hyde lost his smile.

He bared his teeth, then looked up to George and growled.

George raised an eyebrow at this.

“That’s cute, Eddie.” he said.

Hyde glared up at him unamused.

George smiled.

After a while the elevator stopped on their floor, and when the doors opened George stepped out, followed by Hyde.

They stepped into a reception area, a boring room not worth describing beyond stating there was a young blonde man sitting behind a round desk reading a magazine.

“James!” George called out to him while walking around to the other side of the elevators, “Call up Dr. Roberts, to my office, please.”

The man gave a thumbs up.

‘ _Not very professional._ ’ Jekyll said.

“My kind of guy.” Hyde said, before following George.

George lead him down a hall of doors that lead to offices and meeting rooms.

“So this Landon fellow,” Hyde spoke up, “sounds interesting, why’s he need to meet me?”

George bit his bottom lip.

“You’ll see.” he said.

Hyde raised an eyebrow at that.

George sighed.

“I love the man,” he said, “brotherly love, he’s been my best friend since sixth grade, but I have a to warn you…he’s a little…much.”

“What do you mean, ‘much’?” Hyde asked.

“…You’ll see.”

George stopped before a closed door at the end of the hall, then grabbed the knob and pulled it open to reveal a long room lined with window on three walls and white cube bookshelves on the door the door was in. On one end of the room was a little sitting area with coffee maker on a table, and on the other end was a gray desk with two white chairs in front of it.

Hyde stepped in and looked around.

“Look up and back.” George told him as he stepped in himself.

Hyde did just that.

Hanging above the door was portrait of Jekyll in a brown suit, a younger Jekyll before the beard and glasses. He had somehow managed to smile for the portrait.

Hyde smiled.

“I remember that.” he said, “How old were we?”

‘ _Twenty-six, I believe._ ’ Jekyll said, ‘ _It was just me then. Such simpler times…_ ’

Hyde sighed, and shook his head.

George shut the door, then went over to his desk, and sat down.

Hyde went and sat across from him.

“Alright,” George said then, “so first of all, according to the world, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are fictional characters. Utterson didn’t want anyone to try and replicate your experiment, so he destroyed every record of your existence, but then decided maybe your story about how no man is one-hundred percent a good guy was something the world needed, and decided to get a certain author he knew to write a dramatized account of the case. He changed the date of publication, paid some people to read it then talk about it like they had read it years ago, now you’re a icon.”

Hyde raised an eyebrow at that.

“Icon?” he asked.

“I have only met seven people who don’t know that you and Jekyll were the same person,” George explained, “and that’s all most people know about you.”

Hyde nodded slowly.

He frowned and looked down.

‘ _We owe that man so much._ ’ Jekyll said.

Hyde nodded in agreement.

“Since your names are on a bookshelf in every library in the english speaking world,” George went on, “we’re probably going to want to change them. New surnames, I’m thinking Jekyll looks like a Henry James and you an Edward…Harris.”

Hyde shrugged,

“That’ll work.” he said, “Can I ask some questions?”

George gave a nod.

“Right.” Hyde said, “for starters, what about everyone born between you and me?”

“Your descendants.” George said, “Well it started with Robert and Zachary Utterson, Robert was the one who spent all that time looking for the impurity.”

“What did Zachary go on to do?” Hyde asked.

“He became a pianist.” George answered, “The two men died in nineteen-thirty-seven at the age of forty-nine when they decided they couldn’t take being stuck together any more and jumped from the Tower Bridge.”

Hyde frowned.

“Oh.” he said, “…After them?”

“They outlived by three years James and Oliver Utterson,” George answered, “these two came over to America in nineteen-thirty, got into some money trouble with some bad people, and were gunned down at the age of twenty-five.”

Hyde grimaced.

George nodded.

“Then came my grandfathers,” he said, “and great aunt, Harvey and Evan Utterson, and Petunia and Rose Utterson. Harvey and Evan went to fight in the Vietnam war, leaving behind my nine year old fathers, never came home, no idea what happened to them. Petunia and Rose died childless two years after that in a motorcycle race accident.”

He started tapping his finger on his desk.

“Then there was my father,” he said, “died when I was five, he slept around with a neighbor and got caught by her husband one evening when he returned home from a hunting trip early.”

“I swear to God there is a curse on my lineage.” Hyde spoke up.

George nodded.

“The one and only thing I remember about my father was him joking about that.” he said, “We all die untimely deaths.”

He stopped tapping on his desk, and put his hands together atop it.

“Anyway then came me,” he went on, “just me, for some reason, don’t have to share headspace with anyone. Thought it was over, then my sons were born.”

He shrugged.

“Any more questions?” he asked.

Hyde blinked.

“Yeah,” he said, “Um, uh…well I had more questions…”

“Take your time.” George said.

Hyde looked down and thought.

He only had a moment to think though, before something pulled him out of it.

“GEORGE YOU SON OF A BITCH!” a man’s voice rang out from out in the hall.

George and Hyde looked back to the door.

Suddenly it burst open, reverse slamming into the wall beside it and making the portrait above it and all the bookshelves shake, and in stepped a man with his hair up in a bun and lab coat on his shoulders.

“What the ever loving fuck,” he said as he turned towards George, “are you thinking calling me up here when you know I have a hot lunch date in ten damn minutes?! Oh hey who’s the leprechaun?”

Hyde normally would have at least slouched at such a comment, but he didn’t. He kept still and quiet, and stared at the man.

His heart started to beat faster. 

‘ _Hyde,_ ’ Jekyll said, ‘ _I think I’m in trouble._ ’

Hyde nodded.

“I think I am too, Henry.” he said softly.

George stood up.

“Landon,” he said, “this is Edward, Hyde. Edward, this is Dr. Landon Roberts.”

Hyde gave a little wave.

Landon lost his smile.

He glanced up at the portrait above the door for a second, then promptly looked back to the two men.

“Wait,” he said, “what?”

Hyde stood up.

“Back from the dead.” he said, “Long story, and I can prove it.”

“It’s true.” George said.

Landon blinked.

He reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out his phone.

He dialed a number, then brought the device to his ear.

It rang a few times, then there was a click and a small woman’s voice answered, “Hey, Lanny.”

“I’m breaking up with you over the phone.” Landon said, “Bye.”

He then hung and looked back to his best friend and the little man.

“Nice to meet you!” he said with a grin, “Call me Lanny!”


	5. An Excitable Man.

Landon was soon holding a beaker of something red, something he had dreamed of making every night since he discovered his love of chemistry class in freshman year.

He forced away a smile, and instead put the beaker down and got out a certain white powder and measured out a certain amount, which he then poured into the mixture. He took the stirring rod he was using and began to stir the concoction slowly.

The colors began to change, red turned to yellow, then yellowed turned to green.

That smiled crept onto Landon’s lips.

“You know,” he said, “chemicals are usually colorless.” 

“The elixir breaks a lot of rules.” Hyde said from his spot up on the counter behind Landon, “Some rules are made to be broken.”

“That line of thinking lead to your death.” George chimed in from the other side of the room.

“Why are you all the way over there?”

“Science Landon scares me.”

Landon frowned. 

“I scare you?” he asked.

“You get way too excited and start to bounce with beakers of acid in your hand.” George responded. 

“Oh. Yeah I need to be more careful don’t I?”

He took the stirring rod out and put it aside, then picked up the beaker and stepped over to Hyde.

“Hope this works.” he said as he handed the glass to the little man.

Hyde took it, brought it to his lips, then tilted his head back and gulped the mixture down.

Landon took a step back and raised his hands to his mouth.

Hyde put the beaker down, took a deep breath, then shut his eyes and screamed at the top of his lungs.

Landon watched with wide eyes as the little man before him slowly transformed into someone else.

When it was over, when Jekyll sat out of breath in Hyde’s place, Landon grinned wide and started bouncing on his toes.

 “Oh my God,” he said, “oh my God! Oh my fucking God!”

He reached out and grabbed Jekyll’s shoulders.

“I can’t believe it!” he said, “I’ve daydreamed of getting to meet you since sixth grade!”

He started to shake him.

Jekyll just blinked.

“I’m flattered.” he said.

“I have so much I want to say to you!” Landon went on, “Oh God I have to show you the musical!”

“No.” George said, “No adaptations.”

Landon lost his smile, and turned to face him.

“Why?” he asked.

“How would you feel if someone retold your biography and got your entire personality wrong?” George answered.

Landon let go of Jekyll and turned to walk over to George. When he reached him he grab George’s shoulders.

“Don’t do this to me, man!” he said.

George reached up and grabbed Landon’s wrists, and pulled the man’s hands off his shoulders.

“This isn’t even inconveniencing you, Landon.” he said.

“It’s emotionally destroying me!” Landon whined.

“Landon your Autism is showing.”

Landon blinked.

“Oh.” he said.

He slid his hands into his pockets.

Jekyll raised an eyebrow at this.

He smiled slightly and hopped down from the counter.

‘ _ Dramatic. _ ’ Hyde commented, ‘ _ Hot. _ ’

Jekyll shrugged.

George sighed and rolled his eyes.

“I have some phone calls to make.” he said, “You…talk to Jekyll about anything other than how to world views him.”

The man turned and walked off.

Landon watched him go, then turned to Jekyll, walked back over to the man, then grabbed him by the shoulders again.

“First question.” he said, “Are you gay?”

Jekyll frowned.

“Pardon?” he asked.

“It’s ok to be gay now.” Landon said.

“…Was it ever  _ not  _ socially acceptable to be happy?”

“What? Oh! No, I mean, do you like men? The book about you had a lot of homosexual subtext and relationships have ended over whether or not it meant anything. That’s not hyperbole.”

Jekyll blinked.

He didn’t answer.

“I’m bi.” Landon said, “Bisexual, I like to switch.” 

Jekyll nodded slowly.

“I’m that.” he said.

Landon’s grin returned. He started bouncing on his toes again.

Jekyll blushed slightly, then pulled away.

“Any more questions?’ he asked, “Perhaps of the scholarly sort?”

‘ _ Please ask to tie us to a chair and beat our lap with a nine tails whip, _ ’ Hyde said to nobody but himself, ‘ _ the answer is yes. _ ’

Jekyll’s blush grew a little redder.

“Right,” Landon said, “um, right…”

The man took a step back and stood up straight.

Then he just stared at Jekyll, blinking, unable to think.

“I’m coming to a blank.” he said.

Jekyll smiled slightly.

“Take your time.” he said.

Landon smiled, then looked away and reached up to scratch his head.

Jekyll looked away as well, folding his arms over his chest as he did so.

‘ _ The air in this room has been replaced with your mutual unsaid sexual attraction. _ ’ Hyde commented.

“Shut up, Hyde.” Jekyll said.

Landon lowered his hand and looked back to him.

“So,” he said, “is like a voice in your head?”

Jekyll nodded.

“Now I have two voices in my head criticizing every action I make.” he said.

Landon laughed slightly at that.

“Can he hear and see me?” he asked.

“We share all five senses.” Jekyll answered.

“Can he control you any or is he confined to your mind?” 

Hyde weakly raised Jekyll’s arm and gently slapped Jekyll across the face.

Jekyll blinked.

“He’s figuring it out.” he said.

Landon raised an eyebrow at that.

“Your alone time must be awkward.” he muttered.

Jekyll stood up straighter.

“I am a gentleman!” he said.

Landon raised his other eyebrow.

He raised his hand and shook his head.

“Let me just tell you now,” he said, “we got different set of morals in this day and age.”

Jekyll frowned.

“Such as?” he asked.

“Well in this case if you tell people masterbation has been linked to depression they call you a prude, tell you there’s no such thing as God, and suggest you commit suicide.” Landon said with an eye roll.

Jekyll wrinkled his brow at that, but said nothing.

“Basically,” Landon went on with a shrug, “unless you can argue they’re hurting or at least inconveniencing someone other than themselves, you’re not allowed to tell people what they can’t and can’t do. This rule goes out the window if the person being hurt wants to be hurt.”

“That’s anarchy.” Jekyll said.

“Eh kind of, it’s probably horrific by Victoria stan-” 

“I love it.”

Landon wrinkled his brow at that.

“Oh.” he said, “Yeah you would wouldn’t you?”

‘ _ I don’t. _ ’ Hyde said, ‘ _ Half the fun of tugging it came the fact we weren’t supposed to… _ ’

“Hyde, you have problems.” Jekyll said.

‘ _ You made me this way. _ ’ 

Landon glanced off to the side.

He bit his bottom lip, then slid his hands into his pockets and started to rock on his feet.

“Anyway…” he said, “um…I haven’t taken my lunch break yet, I should probably do that…would you like to join me?”

Jekyll smiled.

“Hyde already ate,” he said, “but I’d love to join you.”

Landon grinned wide again.

“I’ll go put my lab coat up!” he said, before turning and rushing off.

Jekyll watched him go.

“Excitable fellow.” he said.

‘ _ I like him. _ ’ Hyde said.

“Keep your God forsaken hands off the precious pure puppy man, Hyde.”

‘ _ I will soil him. _ ’

“Do not.”


	6. Lunch Break

“…so basically I apologize in advance for not making eye contact or making too much eye contact or saying something incredibly sexual and frightening.” Landon finished saying as he sat down with his tray at one of the many small tables in the food court of the shopping mall, “Also for the apologies I’ll say afterwards.”

Jekyll glanced off to the side, then nodded and sat down with him.

“As long as you’re trying.” he said.

Landon relaxed his shoulders and smiled at that.

He pulled the lid off the container that held his sandwich and put it aside.

Jekyll looked around.

“So a ‘mall’ you called it?” he asked, “It’s just a building with a various stores and restaurants in it?”

Landon nodded and picked up his sandwich.

“They’re kind of dying out because people prefer to shop online,” he explained, “but they were really popular in the eighties.”

He took a bite out of his sandwich, then chewed it up quickly and swallowed it.

“So,” he said, “the book about you is my favorite book.”

Jekyll smiled and looked back to him.

“Not the most accurate retelling as I understand it.” he said.

“Probably not.” Landon said, “But it’s a very good story. I read it in sixth grade when George told me about his family history. I went in knowing the twist ending and found myself wondering if Hyde was your lover somehow.”

Hyde burst out laughing at that.

Jekyll laughed as well, though awkwardly and quietly.

“Oh…” he said.

“Only book I could ever pick up subtext from.” Landon said, before taking another bite of his sandwich. After he was done chewing it he swallowed then said, “Also I can relate to the whole not wanting to be what society tells you to be thing. Suppose everyone can. I just...had a different reason.”

He took another bite of his sandwich.

“It’s ironic,” he said after chewing and swallowing, “I used to be terrified of your story, though I never read the book or saw any of the adaptions, um…”

He stopped, and put his sandwich down, then looked down and started rocking in his seat.

“This is probably kind of weird,” he said, “but I used to have these nightmares as a child, these horrific, vivid nightmares about witnessing a man slowly and painfully transform into someone else. When I heard there was a story about one man turning into another man I decided I wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.”

Jekyll glanced down.

“Understandable.” he said, “I avoided old men in bowler hats for a little more than a year as a child after a bad dream about one.”

Landon laughed slightly at that.

“Um,” he said, “the weird bit is, and I may be remembering the dream completely wrong, but I swear I’m not making this up for attention, the transformations in my dreams were a lot like what I saw today. The blackening skin, and things.”

“Really?” he asked.

Landon stopped rocking, then looked back up to him and nodded.

“Really.” he said.

He picked up his sandwich, then took another bite of it.

After chewing and swallowing, he asked, “So what was it like to die?’

Jekyll frowned.

He didn’t answer.

Landon just quietly ate his sandwich, looking elsewhere.

He raised an eyebrow after a moment, and finally looked back to Jekyll.

“You’re quiet.” he said.

“Rather not talk about thay.” Jekyll said.

“Huh? Oh, ok. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

Landon took another bite of his sandwich.

“Someone should dig up your grave.” Landon added, “see if your body is still there.”

Jekyll wrinkled his brow.

‘ _That is something we should look into,_ ’ Hyde said, ‘ _I suppose._ ’

“LANDON!” someone screamed then.

Landon went wide eyed, then turned towards the sound.

Jekyll did the same.

There was a woman marching towards them, a very curvy woman Jekyll noted, with a little blue gem stuck on her nose.

Landon blinked.

He put his sandwich down, then swallowed his current bite, then said to the woman, casually, “Hi, Beth.”

The woman stepped up to him, then stopped before him with her hands on he hips.

“Who the fuck is this?!” she asked, motioning to Jekyll as she did so.

Jekyll stood.

“Henry James.” he said, “Is there a problem, miss?”

The woman scoffed.

“Yeah,” she said, “there is.”

She looked back to Landon.

“Fuck you.” she said.

Then she reached out, stuck a finger into Landon’s bun, and pulled his hair tie out.

Landon’s thick black locks fell down to his waist.

Landon sat up straighter.

The woman dropped the hair tie in his lap, and walked off.

Jekyll watched her go with his nose wrinkled.

“What…why did she go for your hair?” he asked, before looking down to Landon.

Landon sighed.

“I hate it when people touch my hair.” he said, “I feel every strand at my scalp.”

Landon picked up his hair tie, then stood.

“I’m going to go find a mirror to do this in front of,” he said, “be right back.”

Then he turned and walked off towards a hallway with a sign reading “restrooms” hanging from its ceiling.

Jekyll watched him go.

‘ _That is a lot of hair._ ’ Hyde noted.

Jekyll nodded.

‘ _Bet it’d make a good rope._ ’ Hyde added.

Jekyll raised an eyebrow at that.

‘ _We could tie his hands together behind his back with it._ ’ Hyde went on, ‘ _Oh God, imagine yanking his head up by that hair…_ ’

Jekyll sat down, and tried very hard not to imagine that.

He tried very hard not to image that man with his shirt unbuttoned and slid back down his shoulders, his trousers undone and the purple head of his manhood poking out, his face all red.

A sharp pain suddenly shot through him.

Jekyll went wide eyed.

‘ _Are you fucking kidding-oh wait this isn’t a bad thing for me any more._ ’

Jekyll quickly stood up, then looked around.

He looked towards that hallway Landon had gone down.

There was a sharp left turn a few feet down.

He ran towards it.

In the bathroom Landon heard the man scream outside, and looked towards the door.

He looked back to the mirror in front of him.

He quickly gathered up his hair and wrapped it up in the hair tie, then turned and hurried out into the hall.

“Henry?” he called out once out the door.

He heard a groan from around the corner.

Landon turned and walked over to the corner, then slowly peered around it.

At the end of the hall a certain small man was leaning up against the back wall, arms wrapped around himself.

He started to laugh.

Landon frowned, then took a step forward.

“Oh dear.” he said, “I have to cut my lunch break early, don’t I?”

Hyde looked up to him.

“Why would you do that?” he asked.

He pulled away from the wall, and took a weak step towards Landon.

“Um, to take you back to the lab and turn you back into Henry?” Landon said.

Hyde scoffed.

“What makes you think I’m going to let him out ever again?” he asked.

Landon wrinkled his brow.

“You have to.” he said.

Hyde tilted his head.

“And why’s that?” he asked.

“Because…Henry’s the one with the morals?” Landon said.

Hyde scoffed.

“Not a good reason.” he said.

He started walking down the hall, he stepped past Landon.

Landon just stood there, watching him, his arms raised at the elbows.

“I’m going to go find some trouble to get into!” Hyde said as he walked away, “It was pleasant speaking to you! I do hope our paths cross again.”

Landon made a nervous sound, and started bounding on his toes again.

“What do I do?” he asked himself, “What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?! What do I do?!”

He bit his bottom lip, then ran after Hyde.

“I’ll come with you!” he said, “I don’t trust you on your own!”


	7. Penultimate

Hyde chugged one glass of whiskey after another in a booth in a bar.

Landon sat across from him, watching him with his brow wrinkled. 

“Do you have your own money,” he asked after the fifth drink, “or am I paying for this?”

“Probably you.” Hyde said when he put the glass down for air, “Get yourself one, make it worth your while.”

Landon shook his head.

“I don’t do well intoxicated.” he said, “Or on any kind of drug for that matter.”

Hyde raised an eyebrow at that.

“What on earth do you do when you’re stressed if you don’t drink?” he asked.

“I bounce on my toes.” Landon said, “If I’m alone or among friends I spin.”

Hyde smiled.

“You’re like a little child.” he said, before taking another drink.

Landon narrowed his eyes.

“I also have sex sometimes.” he said, “Rough sex, the kind you come out of with rope burns.”

Hyde choked on his drink.

He started to cough.

Landon smirked. 

Hyde looked him in the eye when he was able to breathe again.

He started to laugh.

“Never mind!” he said.

He took another drink.

“Is Henry into that?” Landon asked, “Wait that inappropriate never mind.”

Hyde spit out his drink and started to laugh again.

“I’m into that.” he said, “Henry barely knows what sex is.”

Landon tilted his head.

“Oh that’s right,” he said, “they didn’t have the birds and the bees talk back then, did they?”

Hyde wrinkled his brow, then shook his head.

“No,” he said, “I mean, he’s a fucking virgin at fifty-three. He was never fortunate in love, and the one time he sought out a whore he father ended up pulling him out of the brothel by the ear and it scared him off the idea entirely.” 

Lando blinked.

“Oh.” he said, “Hyperbole. Sorry I’m literal minded.”

Hyde shrugged, and took another drink.

A group came in, young people, three men, two women. The women were wearing long skirts and bikini tops. 

Hyde raised his eyebrows at the sight.

“Would you look at that.” he said.

Landon glance over at the group as they walked up to the bar.

“What?” he asked.

“Is that normal attire for women these days?” Hyde asked, “Please say yes.”

Landon smiled slightly.

“Kinda,” he said, “it’s beach attire, and we’re down the street from Shelby Beach so you’ll see a lot of that in the summer.”

“I like twenty-eighteen.” Hyde said with a grin.

“Stay away from politics.”

One of the girls stood up.

“I’ll be right back.” she said to her friends, “Don’t touch my drink.”

Then she turned around, and walked across the room towards the restrooms.

The walked past Hyde and Landon’s table.

Hyde reached out and pinched her bottom.

The woman stopped and jumped slightly.

She scoffed, then turned to Hyde.

Hyde smiled up at her.

“Oh dear…” Landon said with a sigh.

He slid a little farther down the booth.

“I’m not involved in this.” he said.

The woman grabbed Hyde’s glass, then held it up above his head and turned it over.

Whiskey poured down and drench Hyde’s hair.

Hyde lost his smile.

He stood up and grabbed the woman’s arm.

“Now listen here you little bitch!” he said.

“Don’t touch me!” the woman said.

She put the glass down and tried to pull her arm away.

Hyde just dug his nails into her arm.

“You’re buying me a new drink!” he said.

“Like hell I am!” the woman said.

Her friends looked over.

One of the men stood up.

“Hey!” he said, “Hands off!”

He marched over.

Hyde pointed at him.

“You’ll stay out of this if you know what’s good for you.” he said.

The guy stepped up to Hyde and grabbed him by the shirt collar, then pulled him up out of his seat.

Hyde went wide eyed, and let go of the woman’s arm.

The woman took several steps back.

“Kick his ass, Jamie!” she said, before turning and marching back over to the bar where her other friends sat.

“It’d be best if you not.” Hyde said, “Just buy me a fucking drink, and-”

This Jamie fellow balled his hand into a fist, then swung at Hyde, hitting him in the face.

Hyde shut up.

He grabbed his glass, raised it up, and hit the young man at the temple with the base of it.

Jamie let go and stumbled back.

“Shit!” he called out.

He reached up a hand to his head.

Hyde looked the pint glass over.

There was blood on the bottom of it.

“Huh.” he said, “Yet it didn’t break.”

Landon stood up, moved out of his seat, and went to the door.

“This is a little outside my comfort zone,” he said, “gonna step out.”

“Call for a surgeon if you will!” Hyde said to him.

“Sure.”

Landon went for the door, then pushed it open and stepped out into the street.

He took out his phone.

There was a notification for a text and a miss call from George.

He called back, and brought the phone up to his ear.

It rang a few times, then George’s voice rang out through it, “Where the hell are you?! You left for lunch like two hours ago!”

“Oh,” Landon said, “uh, Hyde came out, and he wanted to go get drunk, so I went with him, and now he’s in a bar fight, and I have no fucking idea what to do in this situation please help.”

He received no response to that.

“George?” Landon asked.

“Son of a bitch.” George said softly, “What’s the name of the bar and the street it’s on?”

Landon looked up to the bar sign.

“It’s called Amber’s Tavern,” he said, “and we’re on Shelby Beach Avenue.”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes.” George said.

Then he hung up.

Landon frowned.

“You didn’t say goodbye.” he said.

He sighed, then put his phone back in his pocket, then brought his arms up to his chest. He started bouncing on his toes again.

“You look like a rabbit on high alert.” a familiar voice rang out from behind him.

Landon stopped bouncing.

“A pet rabbit,” the man in black behind him went on, “still very much a wild animal despite what its captors want to think.”

“Well you look like a fucking whiny emo cunt.” Landon said, before turning around to face the man in black.

The man in black smiled.

“Still upset with me?” he asked.

“Very.” Landon said.

Back inside the bar there was the sound of glass breaking, followed by the sound of a man and a woman screaming.

Landon turned to look at the door.

After a moment it opened, and a man Landon thought he recognized as the bartender tossed a certain ginger dwarf out by the shoulders.

“And don’t come back!” the bartender said.

He stepped back inside, and pulled the door shut.

Hyde turned to the door, and shook his fist at it.

“Your whiskey sucks anyway!” he screamed.

He folded his arms over his chest, then turned to Landon.

His lips and chins were drenched in blood.

“You look hurt.” Landon said.

“You don’t fucking say?” Hyde responded, “Did you call for a surgeon?”

“George is coming.”

“Oh do tell him I said hello.” the man in black said.

Landon looked back to him with a scowl.

“No.” he said.

“Who the fuck is this?” Hyde asked.

“I could ask the same of you.” the man in black answered.

“No need for introductions.” Landon said, “Emo boy here is just about to leave, and we’ll never see him again.”

The man in black frowned.

“I’m hurt.” he said, “But very well Landon, I’ll go. It was nice seeing you again.”

With that he turned around, and walked off.

Landon watched him disappear into the crowd.

“Now really,” Hyde said, “who was that?”

Landon started bouncing on his toes again.

He started to answer, but didn’t get to. He was interrupted by a familiar voice shouting, “You two!”

They looked in the direction the voice had come from, and saw George marching towards them, his hands balled into fists.

Hyde took a step behind Landon.

George stepped up to them, and pushed Landon out of the way, and grabbed Hyde by the ear.

“What the fuck?” Hyde asked.

George turned and started pulling him away.

“Ow!” he whined, “Stop that!”

George paid him no mind, and just kept dragging him along.

Landon laughed slightly.

“You!” George called back to him, “Come!”

Landon lost his smile, then followed after them.  



	8. To Be Continued

For the second time that day, the second time in his life, Landon prepared that curious color changing elixir, and handed it over to Hyde.

Hyde took it, and stared down into it.

“I just want to exist.” he said, before bringing it to his lips and drinking from it.

George frowned at that.

When Jekyll came to, he looked up and said, “And I don’t so what’s the point of all this?”

“I want you to exist.” Landon said softly.

Jekyll glared at him.

Landon took a step back and started bouncing.

Jekyll looked over to George.

“I can barely get out of bed in the morning.” he said, “Foods I had once called my favorites had begun to taste bland, I couldn’t remember why I ever enjoyed any of my old hobbies, I could only feel joy if Hyde was out fucking himself senseless while high on opium. He’s not a wanted man any more, so why not go back to that idea?”

“Because you have no money,” George answered, “no citizenship, no roof to sleep under at night. All you have is me, and I expect you to try and be worth the space you take up.”

Jekyll didn’t respond to that.

George turned around and walked off.

“I have work to do.” he said, “Landon take him home for me will you?”

“Will do.” Landon said.

George left the room.

Landon turned to look at Jekyll.

“I have to take you home.” he said.

Jekyll stood up.

“I don’t have a home,” he said, “but alright.”

He turned and started for the door.

Landon followed him.

“I can help you get your transformations under control.” he said.

“I suppose that’s what George wants of me.” Jekyll said.

“It’s what I want for you.” 

Jekyll stopped, and turned around to face him.

Landon stopped and stared down at his feet.

“Look at me, Dr. Roberts.” Jekyll said.

Landon forced himself to make eye contact.

“You’re sweet, Landon,” Jekyll said, “ and I like you, I really do, but I promise you you will not like me as much as the idea you have of me in your head. I’m a covert pervert, a covert lout, and a covert madman, I only ever pretended to be a functioning member of the society I was born into and I don’t know the first thing about the one I’ve woken up in. We won’t be able to get along for long, I assure you.”

Landon rolled his eyes and started bouncing.

“I like myself,” he said, “and you just described me minus maybe the lout bit, I don’t know that word.”

Jekyll stared at him.

He gave a little laugh, then shook his head.

“You have no idea…” he said, “I’m nothing like you.”

Landon sighed and went still.

“Well I’d like to find that out for myself, if you don’t mind.” he said.

Jekyll just smiled.

“Alright,” he said, “I suppose I ought to take what I’m being given. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He turned and started for the door.

“I’m sure I won’t need to.” Landon said softly.


End file.
